Plural upright mechanism



Dec. 3, 1968 B. 1. ULINSKI PLURAL UPRIGHT MECHANISM Filed Aug. 19. 1966 .IIHWHWL "Ilium 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR B. 1. ULINSEQ.

ATTORNEYS PLURAL UPRIGHT MECHANISM Filed Aug. 19, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR J BY ATTORNEYS INVENT OR B. 1. uumsx;

TTORNEYS United States Patent 3,414,086 PLURAL UPRIGHT MECHANISM Bronislaus I. Ulinski, Jenkintown, Pa., assignor to Eaton Yale & Towne Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Aug. 19, 1966, Ser. No. 573,531 17 Claims. (Cl. 187-9) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An upright construction for lift trucks in which the cross section of the upright sections has opposed channels with a common web of improved strength and rigidity. The upright cross section is substantially S shaped with upper and lower rollers bearing against the common web of adjacent uprights. The upright construction is adaptable for one or several uprights that may be needed for a required amount of lift, and the first upright is mounted on the truck in any one of several predetermined locations relative to the predetermined load lifting plane depending. on the number of uprights required.

This invention relates to an industrial truck of the type having a load lifting carriage which is capable of moving vertically on a set of uprights.

More particularly, the invention relates to an upright construction on which the lifting carriage can be moved, preferably in a vertical plane, there being one, two, three, four or even more pair of uprights so as to permit the vertical movement of the carriage relatively to one or more uprights.

As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, industrial trucks are generally purchased to perform a particular type of operation. Thus, it may be desired to use an industrial truck for lifting a load a few feet, or for lifting a load a considerable distance. Naturally, in order to obtain an extremely high lift, it is necessary to use a series of uprights mounted for sliding movement relatively to one another with the carriage mounted for movement on one upright, generally the extreme fonward upright. In order to manufacture lift trucks of the particular class to contribute the types of lift required, it becomes necessary to utilize a number of different constructions. Under the concept of my invention herein set forth, I make it possible to manufacture a truck which will accept one or a plurality of uprights, while utilizing substantially the same basic truck frame and the same type of upright, be there one, two, three, four or more uprights required for the amount of lift that is desired.

Thus, as a particular feature of my invention, I utilize a main frame having mounting means which I may call a mast support. This support is so constructed that I may fix to it a first pair of opposed uprights in any one of a series of positions that are spaced about the longitudinal axis of the truck in a predetermined plane in which the load carriage is to be moved vertically. I may utilize additional uprights movably mounted on said first upright and, in turn, further uprights moving on the additional uprights, all in positions depending on the position in which the first uprights are fixed to the mast support and relatively to said lifting plane. In this manner, the number of uprights relatively to whichthe carriage moves is deter-mined by the spacing between the carriage lifting plane and the position in which the first uprights are secured to the mast support. Conversely, it is the height of lift, and the number of uprights that are required to give this lift, that determine the position in 'which the first uprights are secured to the mast support.

As a further feature of the invention, all of the uprights are of the same cross-sectional configuration so as to Patented Dec. 3, 1968 simplify manufacture. it will be appreciated further, that the uprights are so shaped as to make possible their assembly in varying combinations while also making the mounting of the carriage on one upright. With this upright cross-sectional configuration 'I obtain a maximum load lifting capability per pound of material in a given length. I have also provided a mast structure which is of minimum width thus providing the operator with maximum visibility for the operation of the truck. Thus, it becomes apparent that I have provided a multi-advantage construction which is greatly needed in the industrial truck designs of today.

As a further feature of my invention, I utilize a novel roller arrangement which is readily accepted within the aforementioned upright sections. By means of this roller assembly I provide a means of eliminating any fore and aft movement of the uprights relatively to each other. I also provide a means of controlling the side thrust -between the adjacent upright sections.

This feature comprises a pair of spaced rollers which are operably mounted at opposite ends of and within the channel portions of my upright sections. With this arrangement the rollers guide the uprights relatively to each other and simultaneously absorb fore and aft forces as well as any sidewise thrust between the co-operating upright sections.

As still another feature of my invention, the roller members which accept fore and aft forces as well as sidewise thrust are in the form of a roller member with an adjustable engaging means which acts at right angles to the roller member.

I have thus outlined rather broadly the more important features of my invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that my contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of my invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject of the claims appended hereto. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the concept upon which my disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures for carrying out the several purposes of my invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equiva lent constructions as do not depart from the spirit and scope of my invention, in order to prevent the appropriation of my invention by those skilled in the art.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a truck showing the uprights in their retracted position;

FIG. 2 is a top plane view of the truck as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view, taken on line 3--3 of FIG. 2, showing the carriage and forward upright section in a raised position;

FIG..4 is a side elevational view showing the carriage and uprights in their fully extended position;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5-5 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a detail showing of the roller assembly as mounted within the upright sections;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating the co-operative relation to two adjacent upright sections.

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 a lift truck T constructed in accordance with the invention.

The truck T includes a first set of stationary uprights which is secured to a forward portion of the truck in a conventional manner. In addition, I utilize further upright sections 11, 12 and .13 which are secured to each other in a manner to be described hereinafter. Pivotally secured to the forwardmost upright section 13 is the carriage 15 with a pallet 14 shown in phantom thereon. As

shown in FIG. 1, upright section 13 is provided with a stop means 16 which will limit the travel of the carriage 15 as the chain 17 is pulled in. Although only one stop means .16 is shown, it is to be understood that each upright section is provided with stop means at opposite ends of the upright section. Illustrated in FIG. 2 is a showing of the upright sections which are each of a block-S cross section with the rearwardmost section being securely bolted to the truck T by bolts 18 or other suitable means. Similarly, the forewardmost upright section 13 receives the carriage 15 which is movable vertically thereon.

FIG. 3, which is a sectional view taken through the uprights, illustrates the carriage 15 at the upper end of upright 13 which is extended to a distance short of its full length. Also shown in this view are the chains 17 which are reeved around sprockets at opposite ends of the upright sections to impart a lifting force to the carriage 15 which is attached to the terminal end of chain 17. FIG. 4 provides an illustration of the truck T with all three upright sections 11, 12 and .13 in their extended position while stationary upright 10 is fixedly secured to the truck T.

Turning now to FIG. 5 wherein I have shown the manner in which I assemble the various upright sections to the truck, I fixedly secured the first upright section 10 to the truck body by bolts 18 which are appropriately positioned about the length of the upright 10. To provide additional rigidity to the upright 10, I utilize a tie plate 19 which extends substantially the entire length of the upright section. The tie plate 19 is attached to the upright 10 by welding as shown at 21. Thus the combination of the block-S cross-sectional upright 10 and the tie plate 19 unite to absorb all torsional, longitudinal, offset and abuse stresses which may be imparted thereto as commonly occurs during the average working day with industrial trucks of this particular class.

In addition, FIG. 5 illustrates the manner in which the additional upright sections 11, 12 and 13 are interdigitated. Each of these additional uprights 11, 12 and 13 being similarly provided with a tie plate 19 which is welded in the same manner as described above with respect to upright 10. To absorb the fore and aft forces as well as sidewise thrust, I insert a roller assembly into the channel portion 24 of each of the upright sections 10, .11, 12 and 13. A more detailed description of the roller assembly 25 will follow below. The forwardmost upright section 13 is provided with means for receiving the carriage 15 to permit movement thereon.

Referring to FIG. 6, I have illustrated one side of section of the uprights 10, 11, 12 and 13 showing my novel roller assembly 25 mounted in its upper position within the channel portion 24. As illustrated, roller assembly 25 is an upper roller with respect to upright section 10. This roller assembly 25 is shown as being received in a bore 26 in the upper end of upright 10. A back-up member 27 supports the rearside of the upright section 10 and bolts 28 are threaded into back-up member 27 and upright section 10 to securely mount the roller assembly thereon.

Extending into the channel portion 24 is my roller assembly 25 which is formed by a central Portion or roller shaft 29 of reduced diameter having a centrally located bore 30 therein extending a portion of the length of central portion 29. At the base of bore 30 is another centrally located bore 31 which extends for the remaining length of the central portion 29. Central portion 29 is surrounded at its outer perimeter by a plurality of spaced bearings 32 which receive the roller member 33. Only one of the two axially spaced faces of channel portion 24 is in contact with the roller 33 and provides rigidity thereto as shown at 33a while there is a slight clearance at the opposite face of the channel 24 as shown at 3312. The interconnecting transverse face of channel 24 is not in contact with the roller 33 except when absorbing side 4 thrust as shown at 34. It is to be noted that the upper end of upright 10 is cut away at 10a to permit the roller 33 to engage the inner face of upright 11 as shown at 33a. Roller member 33 is capable of transverse movement by means of ball 35 which engages the inner central face of roller member 33 and through adjusting screw 36 the position of roller member 33 may be adjusted to compensate for any wear, etc. and thus eliminate any sidewise sway or movement of adjacent upright sections.

Mounted at the lower end of each adjacent upright section is a lower roller assembly 40. That is, the upright section which has an upper roller 25 mounted in one channel is also provided with a lower roller 40 in the other channel, except for the first and last uprights 10 and 13. The purpose of this staggering of roller assemblies is to insure guiding support as the particular upright section is being withdrawn from its interengaging upright. It is to be understood that upper roller assembly 25 is identical to the construction of lower roller assembly, the only difference being in the manner of mounting the lower roller assembly 40 to the channel portion 24 of the upright. As shown, lower roller assembly 40 is welded in place, thus it is not removable, while upper roller assembly 25 is removable due to the bolt type mounting. In addition, the lower roller 40 bears on the opposite face of the channel that the upper roller bears upon as shown at 33c with a slight clearance shown at 33d. Thus, the particular upright is supported to take longitudinal forces in the fore and aft direction. Similarly, the lower portion of the upright channel is cut away as shown at 12b to accommodate the'lower roller. It is to be understood that each upright section is to be fitted with two upper roller assemblies, one at each side, and two lower roller assemblies. However, the upper and lower roller assemblies of each upright are in different channel portions. Again, this is only true of upright sections intermediate the first and last sections.

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view clearly showing the interdigitation or nesting of the block-S upright sections. Four such sections are shown, however, the concept of my invention is not limited to any specific number of upright sections but rather to the particular block-S crosssectional configuration of the uprights in their interdigitated or nested relationship to each other. Thus, as seen in FIGURES 5, 6 and 7, each upright 10, 11, 12 and 13 have a block-S cross-sectional configuration which is symmetrical with a longitudinal center line as well as a transverse center line of the cross section. The end flanges of each upright forming the surfaces 33b and 33d are of equal length and terminate an equal distance from each adjacent upright. Moreover, one such flange of each upright section adjacent any given upright section is positioned adjacent to and parallel to the common web or cross member forming surfaces 33a and 33c and such webs of each upright are rigidly connected together by the cross plate 19.

All of the upper rollers 25 engage surfaces 33a of an adjacent upright while all the lower rollers 40 engage the surfaces 330 of the same adjacent upright, Thus, such web or cross member is engaged by an upper roller 25 attached to an adjacent upright at one side and such web member is likewise engaged by a lower roller 40 attached to an adjacent upright at the other side. Additionally, each upper roller 25 is entirely surrounded or bounded by the sides of two upright sections. Thus, rollers 25 are surrounded by three surfaces or flanges of an adjacent upright section as well as the surface to which it is secured and the rollers 40 are likewise so surrounded or nested on all four sides. This novel upright construction provides a lifting mast that has no equal in rigidity, safety or operators visibility.

Since all of the upright sections are of substantially identical cross-sectional configuration, my invention permits the use of only one such upright section or any convenient number of upright sections depending on the,

lifting requirement of a particular truck. Although FIG- URES 1 and 2 show a chain 17 as being the means of lifting the lifting carriage and the individual upright sections, it is to be understood that the uprights of this invention may be moved relative to each other with other known upright extending means.

I believe that those skilled in the art will now understand the contribution I have made to the industrial truck art. Through my invention, it is possible to furnish a lifting mast that has no equal in rigidity, safety or operators vision clearance. This utilized upright structure with its operating components is of minimum width and can Withstand stresses of all types including abuse stresses and yet maintain its rigidity and structural integrity. I believe, therefore, that the value of my invention will be fully understood and appreciated.

I claim:

1. In a truck of the class described, a mast support, means for removably securing a pair of opposed spaced first uprights to said mast support in any one of several predetermined longitudinally spaced positions relatively to a predetermined load carriage lifting plane at one end of the truck, additional uprights adapted to be movably mounted on said first uprights and in turn to have mounted thereon additional uprights depending on the position in :which said first uprights are fixed relatively to said lifting plane, and a load carriage moving 'vertically on those uprights positioned for mounting said load carriage in said predetermined load carriage lifting plane, the number of uprights relatively to which said carriage moves determining the longitudinally spaced position of said first uprights from said carriage lifting plane.

2. In a truck of the class described in claim 1, wherein all of said uprights have the same cross-sectional configuration and each upright is interdigitated with an adjacent upright.

3. In a truck of the class described, a mast support, means for securing a pair of opposed spaced first uprights to said mast support in any one of several predetermined longitudinally spaced positions relatively to a predetermined load carriage lifting plane, additional uprights adapted to be movably mounted on said first uprightsand in turn to have mounted thereon additional uprights depending upon the position on which said first uprights are fixed relatively to said lifting plane, each of said movable uprights being formed of a pair of opposed flanged channels with one flange common to both channels, and a load carriage moving vertically on those uprights positioned for mounting said load carriage in said predetermined load carriage lifting plane, the number of uprights relatively to which said carriage moves determining the longitudinally spaced position of said first uprights from said carriage lifting plane.

4. In a truck of the class described, a mast support, means for securing a pair of opposed spaced first uprights to said mast support in any one of a series of longitudinally spaced positions relatively to a predetermined load carriage lifting plane, additional uprights adapted to be movably mounted on said first uprights and in turn to have mounted thereon additional uprights depending on the position in which said first uprights are fixed relatively to said lifting plane, each of said movable uprights is in the form of a pair of opposed parallel flanged channels with one central flange common to both channels, said common flange being longer than either of the other flanges of said channels whereby to define a cross-sectional figure substantially S-shaped, and a load carriage moving vertically on those uprights positioned for mounting said load carriage in said predetermined load carriage lifting plane, the number of uprights relatively to which said carriage moves determining the longitudinally spaced position of said first uprights from said carriage lifting plane.

5. In a truck of the class described in claim 3', wherein each of said uprights is interdigitated with an adjacent upright and roller carrying supports are mounted in each of said uprights in such a manner that one of said pair of roller supports is fixedly secured in the upper portion of one channel section and said other of said pair of roller supports is fixedly secured in the lower portion of said other channel portion whereby said roller supports provide stability and rigidity to said interdigitated upright sections as they are being extended or lowered.

6. In a device of the character described in claim 3 wherein roller carrying supports are mounted on said upright with a central portion extending through an aperture in said upright, means for mounting said central portion with respect to said upright section, a counterbore in said central portion with a first bearing means received therein, adjustment means extending from said central portion to engage said first bearing means, a roller centrally mounted on said central portion with second bearing means positioned therebetween to permit free rotary movement thereon whereby said first bearing means is capable of axial adjustment to urge said outer face of said roller into contact with the inner face of said channel portion.

7. In a device of the character described in claim 6 wherein one of said roller carrying supports is removably secured to its upright and said other of said roller carrying supports is fixedly secured to its upright.

8. In a truck of the class described, a mast support, means for securing a pair of opposed spaced first uprights in any one of a plurality of longitudinally spaced positions relative to a predetermined load carriage lifting plane, each of said uprights comprises a pair of opposed parallel flanged channels with one central wall portion common to both channels and a vertical support is secured at opposite sides to said central wall portion of each of said upright sections whereby stability and rigidity is imparted to each of said upright sections, a load carriage moving vertically on said uprights, means for raising said load carriage on said opposed uprights, said uprights having a uniform cross-sectional configuration for its entire length.

9. In a truck of the class described, a mast support, means for securing a pair of opposed spaced first uprights in any one of a plurality of longitudinally spaced positions relative to a predetermined load carriage lifting plane, additional pairs of opposed upright sections are adapted to be movably mounted on said first pair of opposed upright sections, wherein the rearwardmost pair of upright sections is fixedly secured with respect to said mast support, a load carriage operably mounted on said forwardmost pair of upright sections for vertical movement relative thereto, means for raising said load carriage on said opposed uprights, said uprights having a uniform cross-sectional configuration for their entire length, the number of additional pairs of uprights relatively to which said carriage mover determining the longitudinally spaced position of said first pair of uprights from said carriage lifting plane.

10. In a truck of the class described, a lifting mast having a plurality of movable upright sections formed of two opposed channel portions having a central common web and all of which are of the same cross-sectional configuration symmetrical with both a longitudinal and a transverse center line of the cross-sectional configuration, each of said upright sections being interdigitated with an adjacent upright section.

11. A lifting mast for a lift truck having a plurality of rnovable uprights including upright sections all of which are of uniform cross-sectional configuration symmetrical with 'both a longitudinal and a transverse center line of the cross-sectional configuration, each of said upright sections being interdigitated with an adjacent upright section, and each upright section having an upper roller and a lower roller secured at each side of a central common 'web, each of said rollers respectively bearing against 7 a corresponding central common web of an adjacent upright section.

12. In a truck of the class described, a lifting mast having a plurality of uprights including upright sections all of which are of uniform cross-sectional configuration symmetrical with both a longitudinal and a transverse center line of the cross-sectional configuration, each of said upright sections being interdigitated with an adjacent upright section, said upright sections having a central common web which is connected by a transverse plate to the common web of an opposite upright section.

13. In a truck of the class described, a lifting mast including a plurality of upright sections of uniform crosssectional configuration which are interdigitated with each other, each of said sections having a common centrally located web, an upper roller secured to each upright section bearing against said common web of an adjacent upright section at one side of said web, and a lower roller secured to each adjacent upright section at the other side of said web and bearing against the opposite surface of said common web.

14. In a truck of the class described, a mast as claimed in claim 13 in which each of said rollers are surrounded on three sides by surfaces of an adjacent upright.

15. A mast for a lift truck having an upright formed of a pair of upright sections, each section formed of two opposed channel portions and having substantially an S- shape in cross section with one central wall portion common to both channels, a vertical plate secured to opposed sides of said sections to impart stability and rigidity to the upright, said plate being parallel to said central wall portions.

16. A mast as claimed in claim 15 in which said vertical plate is secured to said central wall portion of each of said sections.

17. A mast as claimed in claim 16 formed of a plurality of said uprights interdigitated with each other, each upright section having rollers attached thereto which bear against the central wall portion of an adjacent upright section.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 470,112 3/1892 Ehrentraut 187-1l 1,676,449 7/1928 Lederer 18711 3,143,190 8/1964 Knights 1879 2,998,891 9/1961 Baur 214621 RICHARD E. AEGERTER, Primary Examiner.

H. C. HORNSBY, Assistant Examiner. 

